Nintendo has had an impressive 2019. The overall success of the Nintendo Switch despite riding through the fan tumult of complaints about Pokemon Sword and Shield, the fantastic showing of Fire Emblem: Three Houses earlier this year, and now the continuing success of Astral Chain this week.
Astral Chain is the newest title from PlatinumGames, published by Nintendo for the Switch. It’s PlatinumGames’ first UK No.1 spot and its well-deserved for the game’s impressive combat, lovely visuals and interesting storyline among all the chaotic battles.
This action game was directed by Takahisa Taura, who previously worked on Nier: Automata, alongside supervision from Hideki Kamiya, who created Devil May Cry and Bayonetta. Astral Chain is similar to these titles, of course.
It launched last-week to critical acclaim across the board, though some negative reviews on Metacritic come from disgruntled fans who’re annoyed by the fact the game is a Nintendo Switch exclusive. Some news outlets used the term “review bombing”, but if you check the site you can see there are still a huge range of very positive reviews from fans.
Astral Chain hitting the number one UK chart spot is no surprise, considering Nintendo’s steamroll of this year’s gaming industry achievements.
Despite the company facing backlash from its faulty Joy-Con sticks on the Switch (a problem that has now been resolved through a new return policy), the backlash from the fans about Pokemon Sword and Shield’s dodgy graphics and inability to transfer Pokemon from previous games, and an ongoing dislike of console-exclusive games, it has been an excellent year for Nintendo so far.
Their stock price is significantly higher than at the start of 2019 and a huge number of the Nintendo Switch consoles have been sold over the year.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses was also released on 26th July 2019 to critical acclaim. That game reached the Number One UK Charts as well and was a well-received reboot of the series which had its last game back in 2007.
With the continuing success of its flagship Nintendo Switch, it’s expected that the strong sales of the console and its exclusive games will continue well into the 2019 festive season. Pokemon Sword and Shield release on 15th November this year – the games always play a crucial part in Nintendo’s Christmas sales.
Other titles coming up include Spyro for the Nintendo Switch, releasing the 3rd of September, and Torchlight II, out on the same day.
